Uganda Is The First Country To Vaccinate For Ebola Before An Outbreak

The vaccine is only being administered to health workers rather than the general public.

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Uganda is vaccinating against Ebola, which may not sound significant on its own, but it's the first time any country has done so before an Ebola outbreak.

Uganda is administering an experimental vaccine to health workers in high-risk areas. Those are located along the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is currently experiencing an Ebola outbreak that's growing worse.

The country is trying to avoid a repeat of past situations where health workers died from the disease while treating infected patients. Uganda's health minister says the public health risk from the virus crossing the border into Uganda is "very high."

The World Health Organization said in a statement, “In vaccinating frontline health workers against Ebola virus disease even before Uganda detects a single case, health authorities are being cautious having learnt bitter lessons from previous outbreaks."